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    ticking sound

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by qohelet, Aug 5, 2011.

  1. qohelet

    qohelet Senior Member

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    Just recently I noticed that there's a ticking noise on the left side of my keyboard. This happens most of the time when my fan will start to spin. it's like 3 ticking sound then the fan starts. It's hardly audible even in quiet room though. But if am close to my computer I can hear it. The noise is coming from the left side of the keyboard so am not sure if its from the hard drive or from the fan.

    Is this normal? My m14x has this issue (though it is way louder) but most of those who own m14 has it.. so pretty normal on m14x.
     
    qohelet, Aug 5, 2011
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  2. Brabostaan

    Brabostaan Notebook Deity

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    Take the HDD out and start it again. It wont boot but if you hear the sound its not the HDD.
     
    Brabostaan, Aug 5, 2011
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  3. qohelet

    qohelet Senior Member

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    The surprising thing is this sound is non existent when rebooting the system and the fan will kick in.
     
    qohelet, Aug 5, 2011
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  4. maxtek

    maxtek Notebook Consultant

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    LOL the last time I heard ticking sounds from my laptop was when I dropped a big a** encyclopedia on top. It was the HDD that got messed up.
     
    maxtek, Aug 5, 2011
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  5. qohelet

    qohelet Senior Member

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    lol. Mine is not actually loud. I'll say a very soft ticking sound. :D

    I will try later to open my r3 and remove the fan and HDD and see what will happen.
     
    qohelet, Aug 5, 2011
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  6. maxtek

    maxtek Notebook Consultant

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    The funny part with mine was that mine rendered the accelerometer on the hdd useless...
     
    maxtek, Aug 5, 2011
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  7. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    You sure its not a whining sound? Like a CPU or GPU whine?
     
    Mechanized Menace, Aug 5, 2011
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  8. qohelet

    qohelet Senior Member

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    am sure its not.
     
    qohelet, Aug 5, 2011
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  9. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    K I would probably call Dell and have them replace the drive. You can do an image backup using Acronis or other software.
     
    Mechanized Menace, Aug 5, 2011
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  10. idie970

    idie970 Notebook Geek

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    I believe this sound is normal with the R3. All of the replacement R3s (5 of them) that I've had have had this exact noise right before the fan speeds up. I wouldn't think the noise is anything be be worried about.
     
    idie970, Aug 5, 2011
    #10